Charles Mingus "Pithycanthropus Erectus" 1971

There is always a clever mind behind it, goes the dictum of a national newspaper, behind it there was a highly original mind, if you could modify the sentence, we are talking about the compositions of, according to Arrigo Polillo, the "musician of aggressive polyphony"...
...And as bizarre as his personality, which will be discussed later, the titles he gave to some of his pieces and in which Michael Naura in the program booklet of the 1979 Jazz Days, which, as an obituary, so to speak, devoted an entire evening to Mingus, were "too poetic Signs thickened moods" discovered: "Pithecanhtropus erectus", for example, "Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am", "All The Things You Could Be Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother", which already indicated in the title, da? it was created with the help of his psychoanalyst, or "Fables Of Faubus", the sarcastic reckoning with the governor of Arkansas, who was partly responsible for the fact that the National Guard had to escort colored children to school in Little Rock in 1957.

But what is initially spelled more like Dada, on closer listening clearly indicates the complexity hidden behind it. Because that was Mingus too: the composer of song miniatures no longer to be dealt with in 3:46 minutes single length, but of conceived buildings with basement, ground floor, mezzanine floors and attic, which as a template were too complex and often the 20-minute limit served as far-reaching large-scale sound paintings and also paid tribute to colleagues: "Good Bye, Pork Pie Hat" Lester Young, for example because of his preference for wide-brimmed hats, "Reincarnation Of A Lovebird" Charlie Parker and finally even "O. P." for the big competitor Oscar Pettiford. "He writes striking, challenging music, and it's a pleasure to play with him," emphasized multiple Mingus comrades-in-arms Eric Dolphy, and Mingus himself occasionally gave a glimpse of the reasons for this pleasure: "I'll explain the musicians my compositions piece by piece", he unraveled in an interview his method, which is also based on Ellington, "on the piano I outline the basic concept so that the soloists become familiar with it, whereby the special style of each individual finds room in the ensemble passages as well as in the solos". - https://jazzpages.de/Alisch/mingus.htm

Members:
Charles Mingus – bass / Jackie McLean – alto saxophone / J. R. Monterose – tenor saxophone / Mal Waldron – piano / Willie Jones – drums

trax:
1 Pithycanthropus Erectus 2 Peggy's Blues Skylight 3 Love Is A Dangerous Necessity
Ripped from Vinyl by RYP with Audacity 3.2.1 - Thorens TD 318/Audio-Technica 95E / Yamaha A-S301